one.
The war with Valm and Plegia is long over, Grima destroyed and never to be feared again. The lives of the Shepherds have gone back to normal for the most part, some members bearing emotional and physical scars they didn't have before but showing them proudly to everyone and anyone who asks. There is one thing that they hadn't counted on as a group when the war had started, that being the surprising introduction of everyone's future offspring in the middle of the war campaign.
Or, to be more specific, almost everyone's future offspring. There had been a few people, after the weapons had been laid down and the mounts sent to the stables at the end of the war, that found themselves without a child to their name, despite non-romantically attached women having kids come to them telling them that they were theirs. Something might have gone wrong in the timestream, the kids explained afterwards, because there should have been a child for everyone, more or less.
For some people left childless, this proved to be a problem because they wanted to know what their future kid would be like. For others, this was no problem at all. No child coming back to meet them might have meant that something had gone wrong, but it also meant that there was no obligation for them to have a child at all.
It might have sounded selfish and a bit rude, but Sully was more than happy to not have to feed into that monster that everyone else felt like they had to.
two.
The story, as the kids who did arrive have always told it, is that they lost four of their own on the journey. As there were nine of them who showed up during various parts of the war, that means thirteen total should have appeared. They remain unhelpfully tight-lipped about genders or personalities of the missing kids, which bothers anyone who might have wanted to know a bit about their child they never got to meet.
By the time it's a year past the fall of Grima, there's been zero appearances by these missing children and people, both those with and without their future kids, are beginning to get restless. The season of present-time child bearing seems to have started, and for those who don't know a thing about their future children, that's a daunting endeavor.
three.
Except to Sully. Of course she's always the exception to the rule, she's never been like the other ladies that she fought alongside. Once children were added to the mix, they all went in a different direction that she had, despite her being one of the few who actually (and quite stupidly) got married somewhere in the timeframe of the war. Her one-time allies on the battlefield went from worrying about survival to worrying about having children.
Meanwhile, all she's done is go from mildly amused at the idea of people's kids falling from the sky to tired of hearing about it talked about at all.
four.
A few years pass, time during which the overwhelming baby fever everyone else seems to be afflicted with results in nearly everyone bearing a child. The few who don't—not even all people who didn't get the chance to meet their future child while in the war—become left out of what feels like an exclusive club that is made up of everyone else they know. The one way to join their ranks? Give in to the temptation to bear a child that ultimately replicates one they'd had in a different timeline.
five.
Insistent on not falling victim to the same exact problems that her comrades had, Sully spends her time either keeping up with her training (despite Ylisse being a peaceful place nowadays) or sitting at home, complaining about the latest gossip she's heard while training with old friends.
"Can you believe that everyone's insisting Chrom's bringing another heir to his throne, just because he came out to a practice battle without his wife?" she asks one winter evening after getting home from training, disrobing with every step she's taken inside the house until she's standing in the middle of the tiny living area with nothing but underclothes on. "I think they've all lost their damn minds if they think her missing one battle's reason to assume something that big."
"It ain't just your group that's talkin' about that, everyone out in the streets is suspectin' it as well." Speaking in his brash way that he always has, sounding a lot rougher than he's turned out to be, her dear husband Vaike gets up from where he's laying on the floor, grabbing her in a big hug that she tries to put a stop to before it even starts. "Hey, what's that for? Muscles a bit sore or somethin'?"
She shakes her head, flexing an arm to show him that her muscles are, in fact, as pristine as always. "Wouldn't want your lazy ass having to go take a bath because you got drenched in my sweat," she explains, causing him to laugh at her reasoning. "But seriously, how do you think you can say that you've heard other people having this same hair-brained idea and get to drape yourself over me right after saying it?"
"Because we're married and it's what we do?" His laughter stops as she looks at him with an entirely unamused look, only for her to burst out laughing herself. "See, there ya go! Don't hate on me just 'cause I'm passin' on the news I've heard. Unless you're plannin' on makin' it up to me somehow, that is."
He might not have been attempting to be any sort of seductive with what he's said, but his idea for her to pay him back doesn't leave her mind until long after they've stayed up far too long in bed that night.
six.
The times they spend together, intertwined in each other's arms and enjoying the other's company while making comments on how their relationship should've been built on physical prowess and not romance, aren't easily forgotten.
seven.
Rumors seem to prove themselves true when people least want them to be, as it turns out with the whole situation regarding Chrom and his second child. When he comes out to join another practice battle with some of the still-eager to fight Shepherds, he admits to them that Robin is indeed once again with child and that they don't have the slightest idea what they're in for this time.
The whispers start among the people that are gathered, trying to come up with something to tell Chrom to ease his mind. The consensus is that someone should ask a future child that's still hanging around Ylisstol, see if they'll shed any light on the mystery. While this idea is agreed upon by almost everyone, Sully can't help but feel that asking a future child will result in them sharing all the secrets they have left to hide—and she's wary that they're going to accidentally tell whoever asks about Chrom's child what her (hopefully nonexistent) future child is like as an added bonus.
Either that, or there are no other mystery children to unveil and she's in the clear.
She really, really hopes it's that second option.
eight.
There isn't a single future child that's willing to divulge any sort of information about the potential missing members of their ranks, because they feel that in doing so, they will ruin the surprise of the reveal for everyone still left in the dark. The reluctance is enough to spark worries within some people already with children that secrets are being kept because they're meant to have another child or two, which is met with laughter and no positive or negative response. The lack of words must mean something, they assume.
nine.
A stranger manages to wander into the training field while some of the Shepherds are having a lunch break together. He gets past all the mounts tied up to a grove of trees without a single neigh or whinny from all of them. No one hears him as he approaches, not until he steps a bit too close to a pile of weapons and the weight of his footstep is just enough to knock one weapon into another.
The group freezes and looks from their meal to see who's causing the commotion, and upon sighting the stranger most of them are getting to their feet and jumping into battle stances, despite no one having a weapon on hand. "H-hey now, I'm not here to start a fight or anythin', calm yourselves," the stranger says, raising his hands defensively to show he's not wielding a weapon to hurt them with. His voice scratches against Sully's ears when he speaks, and she spends the next couple of minutes inwardly fighting with herself as she looks at this intruder, noticing his reddish hair and his big, burly appearance.
It can't be a coincidence that he's got traits of both her and Vaike and he's just mindlessly walked into a field full of trained warriors, can it?
ten.
It can be, and it is, thankfully.
The moment someone has the bright idea to ask the intruder what his name is and what he's meaning to do by being there, he breaks down in tears and brings his hands up to his face to wipe them away. When he says his name, one of the people standing at the front of the group loudly gasps, bringing his own hands to his face in shock. It turns out that this intruder is the future version of his child, and has given the exact name that he and his wife had decided on if their child happened to be a boy.
Everyone has a good laugh about how they thought they were under attack by a future child, a situation that doesn't lose its humor for weeks.
eleven.
A sinking feeling that's weaseled its way deep into Sully's core from a while before the day of that intrusion seems to have gotten worse over the following weeks. She can't shake it off, no matter how much she tries, but she doesn't talk about it to anyone for fear of them jumping to conclusions about what it might be. When she starts waking up feeling just as tired as she did when she went to sleep the night before, warning flags shoot off in her mind that this isn't right, that something is very wrong with her, but she still tries to play it off. It must be that she's working herself too hard, despite doing much less now than she did when war was imminent and she was being pulled across continents for fights.
It isn't until she's thrown off her horse, a beast known for being hard on anyone riding it, that anyone around her suspects that she's feeling unwell. She acts like she'd just let her guard down a bit too much, leading to her hitting the ground, but the moment she's heading home from the practice field she's cursing herself for letting this happen to her.
Not the sign of weakness, the other thing.
She can't bring herself to even think the word.
twelve.
It's not exactly confirmed that's what's going on, but there's no other option that immediately comes to mind. It's the one option she's been toying with ever since the first morning she woke up feeling less than normal, and it's the one option she's been jokingly talking about with others who, unbeknownst to her, have been expecting this talk to come for a very long time.
But it can't be the reality, it just can't be. The silence from the future kids is because there are no others like them, that's what she firmly believes and until there's proof otherwise that's what she's going to keep believing.
thirteen.
Upon reaching home, she sees a note from Vaike that he's out helping a friend with some kind of overnight trip and that he'll be back while she's asleep, unless she happens to wake up when he gets there. This is a normal occurrence for them, and normally she doesn't think anything of it. Except this time, with the fear of what's happening clinging to her, she wishes that he wasn't being helpful this once.
fourteen.
It's shaping up to be a sleepless and lonely night, the bedroom feeling more empty than it ever does, with every slight breeze outside making the walls shake and creak. It isn't so much that Sully can't begin to fall asleep so much as it is she doesn't want to until she's not alone, not because she needs companionship but rather because she feels the nagging need to get things off her chest before she can let herself fall asleep. She wants to speak words to someone that will listen, not to her reflection in the one mirror in the house she can get enough light to in the dark.
Eventually, though, she decides that she's got to say the words on the tip of her tongue, even if they're just spoken to a mirror that reflects only what she's physically showing it. She sits up in the bed, throws her legs over the side, and gets up, only to regret the decision when her head starts spinning and she feels weak.
Her, a strong warrior, feeling weak because she stood up too fast.
Maybe talking to the darkness while laying down would give her as much mental satisfaction as saying it to a replica of herself would. It's a strange feeling, getting up just to lay back down, but honestly everything she's felt in the past couple of months has been just as strange, if not more. She gets back into bed and the reality of what she was going to do, what she was about to say, hits her just like the cold of the other side of the bed does when she rolls over into it.
This is the first time she's approached talking about this out loud bluntly, this issue that's weighing down on her mind and her body. She's discussed the idea of what's happening before, of course, all in hypotheticals that are so thinly veiled she knows everyone knows she's just trying to hide the truth from herself, but she's never once come out and said exactly what she knows is going on.
"I…I'm not cut out to be a mother," her voice says, the words coming not just from her mouth but from her soul, from deep down inside of her. "I'm not like the others, I'm not made for this damn nurturing thing. I'm made for the battlefield, not for being stuck at home with a kid on my hip."
She inhales after making her confession, the chill of the night air filling her chest and bringing her some form of comfort. It doesn't judge her for what she's said, it merely lends her a listening ear that she's been looking for. "I don't even know how I'm going to manage this," she continues, not liking how her mind's already racing with thoughts of how wrong it is for her to be voicing these doubts. "This is going to become nothing but a huge problem, and who's to blame but me and my dumb self?"
There's no answer to her question, despite her knowing who else to blame, and the last thought she has before she drifts off is that she's glad she didn't wait for an actual audience to voice her issue.
fifteen.
Somewhere around dawn she's woken up by hands pushing her back onto her side of the bed, her eyes opening just long enough to see that Vaike's somehow made it back home and back inside without waking her up before this. She's not awake enough to say anything to him, but she does notice that he's smiling at her as he crawls in beside her, once there's room there for him, anyway.
The next time she's woken up it's because there's a knock at the door, and much like when she was woken at dawn her eyes only open enough to see what's next to her before she acts. When she sees that Vaike hasn't stirred at the sound, she waits for the knocking to continue before she tries waking him up because of it. She's had a rough night, and even though he didn't get in until dawn she doesn't want to be the one to have to scare off some visitor. She'd do it with anger; he'd do it with enough goofy kindness that the person wouldn't feel offended to be chased away.
As she figured it would, the knocking repeats itself, a little harder and a little more like it would if it were her standing at the door: whoever is there is aggressive and wants to speak with someone, or even to come in. Still not wanting to deal with it, she shakes her companion awake, him shooting up as if he'd been woken up with a call to battle. "Wh-what's happenin'?" he sleepily asks, looking at her for an answer. "Where's the attackers, who's darin' t'try hurtin' my wife?"
"No one's attacking us, you idiot," she replies, patting him on the back, "but good on you for wanting to protect me. Now go check and see who's at the door."
"The door? You're tellin' me ya just woke me up to go check the door?" He shakes his head, waving in the door's direction with one hand as he pulls his blanket off of himself to reveal that he's been sleeping in next to nothing. "Yeah, I don't think whoever's there wants t'see this much of me. You can do it this time."
There is a split second where Sully manages to convince herself that he's agreed to be the one to check the door, and her face lights up in a grin, only for it to sink in that he's turned the situation around to her having to do it. "Why should I have to?" she asks, sitting up next to him and throwing the blanket off of herself as well, showing him that she's nearly as nude as he is—just the way they always have it, even if the night had started with one of them being alone. "Whoever's there is going to take one look at me and think 'oh hell, is that what warriors look like once they're done with war?' and I really do not want to have to beat someone down this early." She speaks of her exhausted appearance, but a fear creeps up that perhaps she's preemptively speaking of something else as well.
"Stop makin' excuses and just do it, you're the one who woke up 'cause of the knockin' anyway." As she gasped in shock at how blunt he was about this, Vaike went and laid right back down, covering himself back up once more. "Ya can do it and it won't kill ya, I can promise ya that, Sully."
"But you…but I…gods damn it, you're not going to let me win this one, are you?" He laughs as she sighs in defeat, the battle having been lost long before it even got started, and so she gets out of the bed (slowly enough not to make herself dizzy) and finds the first article of clothing she can put on to make herself look somewhat decent. It's an old shirt of hers that she fondly wore during winter months when the nights got too cold to sleep in the mostly-nude, and it's long enough that it covers everything that needs to be hidden away when dealing with strangers at the door of a city slum house.
It's also fitting on her a tad more snugly than usual, something that makes her cringe to think about the reason for—if this isn't a figment of her imagination to begin with. Hopefully whoever's at the door won't notice that and will be properly scared away when she tells them off.
sixteen.
The person standing on the other side of the door is heavily armored, eyes hidden behind a mess of bangs that desperately need a trim. When Sully gets there to greet them, they recoil at the sound of her harsh "What are you doing here?" but are quick to shake their hair out of their eyes to look at her better.
What Sully sees is nearly her reflection in the face now staring at her, and she feels her heart pick up its pace as she tries making sense of what's standing before her. "I don't come to cause trouble," the person, female judging by the sound of her voice, says; her words echo the words of that intruder boy that had stumbled upon the lunch months before. "I had heard word from a friend of mine that people of interest to me lived here, and I had to see for myself before I—"
"You've been told wrong," Sully tells her, cutting her off. "No one of interest to anyone lives here, now leave us alone." She doesn't shut the door on this armored woman, not when she watches her jaw hang open slightly as she looks for words to use in retaliation. This visitor is not going to take no for an answer, and deep inside Sully knows that she shouldn't give it as one to her.
"Perhaps me starting from the beginning would be helpful here?" the woman offers, holding out a hand that's clenched tightly shut around something. She turns her wrist to open her hand, fingers uncurling around a simple ring that's not something that could be bought anywhere. It's handmade, completely unique, aside from its exact twin sitting on Sully's finger. "As I said, I don't come to cause trouble. I came to meet with my parents."
Her future child has locked eyes with her upon their first, heavily delayed meeting, and the only thing Sully can think to do is deny what's happening. "Yeah right, as if I would ever have a child, ever," she says, acting like she isn't mostly sure that she currently is with child. "I'm a fighter, not a mother. I don't do that damn baby-raising stuff."
"And I assure you that you are my mother." The woman's lips push together as she narrows her eyes at who's standing in front of her, who is still in disbelief at what's actually happening to her. "Why, don't I look exactly like you do?"
"Minus the hair, I guess I could say that you look a little like me." Shrugging, Sully reaches for the ring in the woman's hand, but she closes her fingers before she gets the chance to grab it to investigate it. "Hey, why show me it if you're not going to let me look at it closer? You trying to pull a fast one on me?"
As her eyes narrow further, the woman retracts her hand, before flinging it behind her, letting the ring become lost in the rocks and dirt of the path leading to the house. "Why would I ever consider doing that? You are my mother, and I want you to accept that through physical proof. Through things not man-made like the ring."
"Through things like how you look, I get it, it's just…" Sully shakes her head before running a hand over the messy top of her own hair, her eyes beginning to fixate on the blonde hair the woman has. "Figured that if, by some crazy happening in this world, I ever had a child, they'd get my kind of hair. Red and fiery and unique. Not dirty-looking like yours."
The woman's eyebrows raise as her eyes go wide, shocked to have just heard the words that came out of Sully's mouth. "You think that I wouldn't possibly have inherited my father's hair color? And because of that, I can't be yours? What a horrible thought to have!"
It is a horrible thought, but Sully felt like it had to be voiced. Despite all the overwhelming evidence pointing to this woman being correct in her mindset, she doesn't want to fall for it quite yet. There still has to be some way to prove her wrong, to set enough of a seed of doubt in her mind that would make her back away, never to return.
"What's your name?" she finally decides on asking, knowing that she doesn't have the first idea of what she'd name a daughter, because she had believed for so long that she'd never have one.
The woman takes in a deep breath, her purple eyes shifting towards the ground as she contemplates answering. She releases what she's taken in as she looks back up at the person in the doorway, a look of determination across her face. "My name," she replies, voice as steady as it had been when she'd arrived, "is Kjelle."
seventeen.
There is no way that this woman—no, this girl—has come up to this door and spouted the one name in all of existence that would be the go-to name for Sully to ever pick. That's a family name, something so precious to every woman down her family tree that it would be impossible to pick a female with her blood that didn't have it as their middle name.
This girl is the real deal, and Sully's so taken aback by the revelation that she does what she'd thought of doing before: she slams the door shut and backs away from it.
eighteen.
"You were dealing with whoever's there at the door for a lot longer than I'd ever think possible," Vaike says with a laugh when Sully comes back towards the bed, her face having gone pale as she mentally ran over what had just happened. "Someone tryin' t'recruit ya for some war effort, I assume? Don't they know this is a house of Shepherds, we ain't about that war-startin' life! We're war finishers!"
"It wasn't anything about a war," she tells him, as the sound of the door opening and whoever was there letting herself in drowns out any following words of explanation she might have had. With an intruder now in the house, she turns to face them, reaching to brandish whatever weapon she might have close by, while Vaike scrambles to make himself look somewhat decent despite only having a blanket as cover.
The girl from outside, Kjelle, has come into the house, still fully armored, her footsteps making clanking sounds that echo against the thin walls. She looks at the two that were already inside and her chestplate rises as she draws in a breath in preparation to address them both. "What kind of parents leave their child outside like that?" she asks, a hint of playfulness filling her voice. "I come all this way to let you meet me, and that's how I'm treated? Maybe I should have kept to fighting battles on my own and given up on this search like everyone gave up on me."
"Who's this? What's she goin' on about?" Vaike's sitting up in the bed, confused as he watches the newcomer start to remove her armor, taking it off piece by piece and tossing it to the floor. "Why do we have an armed soldier in the house at this hour? Thought you said this wasn't anythin' 'bout a war!"
Feeling herself growing frustrated with what's happening outside of her control, Sully snaps, "It is nothing about a war! She's just some crazy lady who thinks she's allowed to waltz right in here and claim she's our child!"
At the same time that Vaike's asking for repetition of those last few words, Kjelle is freezing in her armor removal, looking at her parents with less amusement and more disbelief that there's still denial of her parentage happening. "I am your child," she corrects, waggling a finger in their direction while she quickly gets the rest of her armor off and kicks it aside. "I don't know what else I can do to prove that to you, but it's the truth."
nineteen.
This isn't a family of emotional people, but while one parent might have argued against the facts of the matter all day if she was given the chance, the other starts tearing up at the revelation. "Huh, how 'bout that," he manages to say before having to press the back of his hand to his mouth to keep himself from crying out anything he'd most likely regret.
His whisper of "I never thought this'd happen t'us" makes Sully hope that she's wrong about her fear and that she won't bring him this close to tears ever again.
twenty.
She makes him cry a matter of days later when she wakes up completely miserable and her words leave her mouth before she's fully awake enough to realize what she's admitting to him, and he's still half-asleep and barely processes what she's said to him. Doesn't mean he doesn't remember it once they're out of bed and trying to go on with their day, though.
twenty-one.
Keeping the possibility (she's not absolutely sure about it, even after how long she's been under the weather and feeling off) secret from everyone is a lot harder than it should be, given that her go-to training clothes involve a lot of exposed midriffs. She knows she can't show up to a group function showing off her stomach, not when there might be some way to look at it and tell that her normally well-defined abs are starting to fade, that something's going on with her.
She tries getting away with it for as long as she possibly can, but there's only so long before the way she's been perceiving herself since she first suspected anything is starting to become the way she actually looks.
twenty-two.
"So you finally admit to it, hm?" Kjelle asks as she stands at the doorway of her parents' house, trying not to crack a smile as she watches her mother scramble to come up with some excuse that dodges the question. "I mean, I can't be surprised, I have to exist here somehow, but so soon? Are you sure about this?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, 'so soon'. Your…father and I have been married for a hell of a lot longer than you realize." Sully looks from the woman in the doorway towards where Vaike is laying on the floor, not even having made it to the bed to fall asleep after another night out. "Even still, I'm not sure about this. I want nothing to do with having you."
The smile appears despite Kjelle's best attempt to keep it hidden, and she snorts, amused. "I know exactly when you were married, it was a spur-of-the-moment thing, something you both did in fear that you wouldn't survive the war and you wanted the other to get whatever you might have had." She pauses, before shaking from trying so hard not to laugh, spitting out, "As if he had anything you'd have wanted back then!"
"I'll have you know that he's always had something I wanted, but that's not relevant here because how do you know every damn thing about us? I doubt future-whatever me was loose-lipped about that kind of stuff." Crossing her arms over her chest, it was now Sully's turn to watch Kjelle for an answer, but she was too busy giving in to her laughter to ever manage anything more than a shoulder shrug and a smile.
twenty-three.
This isn't the kind of child Sully wants to raise. Granted, there isn't a single child she'd be satisfied with, and at least Kjelle seems to be somewhat competent on the battlefield, but there's something about her that makes her undesirable. Her attitude? Her insistence on showing up exactly when she's not wanted to make some quip that adds frustration to the current situation? Her vagueness?
Whatever it is, if everyone else's experience is any indication, there's nothing she can do about it because the child she's having is going to be just like this time-traveling one.
twenty-four.
Oh gods, she's actually having a child and that's an undisputable fact.
twenty-five.
Kjelle finds it humorous how every time she appears at her parents' house, she has to go through the same runaround with her mother. It's not what she wants to spend her time doing, showing up to have to ask a million questions before being allowed to possibly get inside to talk to them both, if both of them are even there, but she does it because she cherishes whatever moments she gets with her parents.
Her friends don't think it's as funny when they hear her talking about what she's had to do on her newest visit to the slums. "Come on, Kjelle, you've got to stop putting up with that," one of them says to her while sprawled out on her lap, running fingers through her long, green-tinted hair as she looks up at the blonde with a seductive smile. "Stop going over there to come back here frustrated, I'm sure you'll be much happier if you just stay hanging around us cool kids."
"I happen to have no problem with being blocked at the door, Severa. I'm sure you wish your parents had done the same thing to you when you first showed up and started causing trouble for them," she replies, looking down at who she's talking to and blankly brushing off the smile she's receiving. Severa huffs when she realizes she's being stopped in her attempt to move past just casual talk, but she doesn't say anything else. "My mother's always been the independent kind of woman who doesn't want things tying her down. I can completely understand how knowing she's to have a child is messing with her."
That gets the other person in the room, sitting on the floor next to Kjelle and Severa, to lift his head off of his hands and look at the two with a brightened face. "You know what I think you should do about this, Kjelle?" he asks, not waiting for her to give a response before he's sharing his idea anyway. "I think you should have a sit-down with your parents, tell them how it is, and let them know that it's all going to be okay! You're a great person and they've got to learn to see that, and quick if what I keep hearing is right!"
"Owain, why are you even here right now? Neither of your parents are around anymore, why do you bother staying in Ylisse?" Severa lifts herself off of Kjelle's lap to glare at the dark-haired guy sitting next to her, as he shrugs and starts rambling on with whatever explanation he has. "I…I don't actually want to hear this!" she yells, shutting him up quickly, his expression going meek as he looks at her. "I just want you to shut up and leave us alone, what's so hard about that?"
"I live here, with her," he reminds Severa, nodding towards Kjelle, who gives a soft "mhm" in response. Ever since she'd gotten to Ylisstol after being separated from her group, she'd made it a point to stay with others who'd been part of the time traveling crew, Owain being the most eager to always offer her a place. "And all I've been trying to do is help her get her footing with her family, just like I had to with mine. Before they left."
"Ugh, I know you live here, but your help isn't needed! She can do it just fine on her own, I know she can, none of your stupid help required!"
After Severa's finished berating Owain for being a decent friend, Kjelle looks at him with a sympathetic look and a smile, him rolling his eyes and mouthing something about Severa being obnoxious. "You know what, I think I can handle this on my own," she says, hearing Severa smugly laugh because she thinks she's been sided with, but the attitude quickly changes when Kjelle continues with, "but it's nice to have Owain's experience in mind while I try."
twenty-six.
He suggests that she goes to her parents one at a time and tries connecting with them to make sure they're all about having a present version of her in their lives. "Trust me, it'll work," he assures her as they're sitting up late one night. "When I had to do this with my parents, getting through to my mom was super easy—she was thrilled to know she'd have a cool son someday! But my dad was a lot harder, he didn't want anything to do with her or me or anyone but himself, really, but after tearing down his walls a bit I managed to not only get him and Mom married, but they made new-me too!"
"What a shame that my parents are already married and expecting me, then, huh?"
Owain pauses as he figures out how to reply to that, his mind having only prepared him for her eagerly going along with his words. "I guess that might throw a kink or two in the plan, but what's a good plan worth, anyway? Part of the fun's in the adventure!"
She doubts it, but as her closest friend that's supporting her in this, she's got to force herself to believe him.
twenty-seven.
As discussed, approaching them separately is what she tries to do, but she finds that it's not as easy as showing up at their front door and asking them if she can talk with them. That might have been acceptable early on in the endeavor, but by this point she's been dealing with her parents for a month, if not longer, and she's learned that they're not going to let her separate them that easily.
Especially not now that her father's slipped into a fiercely protective mode that puts him on edge every time he has to open the door for her. He's not upset to see her, but he seems to think that she means bad news for the unborn version of her, and he doesn't want anything bad to happen to his baby.
It's funny, she thinks. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to unborn Kjelle, but the real, living one? Anything can happen to her.
If only he knew what was waiting for him…
twenty-eight.
"You need to stop coming around here. We've discussed this and you appearing is only making all of this worse." The words are completely expected from the person who's saying them, but what strikes Kjelle as odd is that her mother's the one who's answered the door on this visit. These visits have been happening almost every day for months now, and this is the first time since those early visits that it hasn't been Vaike there to turn her away. "You're just making me hate this a lot more than I would've been had I been going into this blindly."
"You'd hate having me regardless of knowing me or not, I know that you hated baby me when I was born in my timeline, why would that be any different?" Kjelle tries to not look at her mother as she speaks to her, knowing that her curiosity would cause her to most likely look her over. "I just want you to not hate me after you've had me. I want you to love the, uh, perfect daughter you deserve having."
The door is promptly slammed closed in her face, leaving her to have to come up with a different approach.
twenty-nine.
"You're not going to shoo me away because I just 'happened' to find you out here on your own, are you?" Kjelle's question is sincere, because she fully expects to be told to get lost after running across her father while he's heading out somewhere one evening. He hadn't even seemed to notice her appearance until she spoke, so him being caught off-guard is no joke, even after he laughs the surprise off and shakes his head. "Oh, thank the gods. I really need to talk to you."'
"What's it happen t'be about? I mean, if ya ask anythin' 'bout Sully, I'm not gonna give ya any answers." The way Vaike smiles at her as he speaks makes Kjelle shrink back where she stands, her whole body melting in place at how she's being showered with this slight affection from her father. "So either get t'talkin' or get movin' on your way, ol' Vaike ain't got the time t'stand around chattin' for nothin'."
For a moment, Kjelle considers giving up and passing on this opportunity that's come to her, but something keeps her rooted in place. It might be that she's actually talking to her father, or it might be that she has plenty to say to him, but at the same time, for him to be heading out means that something's going on and she doesn't want to interrupt him. Ultimately, the desire to talk to him outweighs her thoughts on what he should be doing. "Ahem, it's nothing to do with her, no matter how much I'd love to know how she's holding up. It's about you, actually."
"About me, huh? Well, go on ahead and share it, like I said I ain't got the time t'stand and chat, got places t'go and all that."
Kjelle made sure her father didn't have anything to add before she nodded and began telling him what she'd rehearsed for when she finally got this moment. "I've been thinking a lot about my existence, both in this timeline and the one I'm from," she started, watching him focus on her to listen intently. "It's funny, really, I grew up in a family so different from the one all my friends grew up in, and I want the me of this timeline to not have to face that same struggle."
"That sounds like a big task you've put on your own shoulders, but if there's anythin' I can do t'help, I'll—hey, why're ya laughin' at that?" It was true, Kjelle had started to laugh the very moment Vaike had mentioned shoulders, and by the time he'd caught on she'd become lost to the humor of the situation. When she calmed down, she waved for him to keep going, something he did with no hesitation. "Okay, so where was I? Helpin', right? If that's where it was, I'm really down for helpin' in whatever way I can. Y'see, the Vaike didn't think he'd ever get t'be in this situation, and now that it's happenin' it's…somethin' else, really."
"Might help if you weren't married to the most stubborn woman in all of Ylisse, but that's nothing I'm going to complain about." Kjelle closes her eyes and sighs, just to re-open them and look at her father. "I can't say I have a lot of fond memories of spending time with her that I'd love to share, but with you…I remember being little, and being a tagalong to super-important Shepherd meetings that you had to go to. You'd put me up on your shoulders and let me be the tallest anyone there, letting me see high above everyone else…"
She sighs again. "It was something I'd never forget, being the tallest person in the Shepherds when you'd do that for me. Even when I was too big to be lifted like that, you'd still try doing it because it made me laugh, and you'd do anything to see your child laugh in such dark times."
"But these, they ain't exactly dark times like that. There's not gonna hopefully ever be a time where baby you's bein' dragged t'meetings." Vaike brings a hand up to one of his shoulders, brushing it off. "However, I ain't gonna shoot down the idea of someday copyin' that idea."
thirty.
At least there's the constant that her father's trying his best despite his shortcomings, but Kjelle really wants to make a breakthrough with her mother. She wants to give the new version of herself a chance that she never had.
It wasn't ever going to be easy, she knew, but she didn't think it would be this difficult.
thirty-one.
It's mid-September and Kjelle (and her friends, who are strangely invested in her journey to get her mother's acceptance) is well-aware of what this means, if things aren't changed too much from her timeline to this one. She knows her birthday's in a couple weeks' time, and she's more than willing to share that information with either one of her parents to let them know. The issue there is that, after that evening chat she had with her father, she hasn't seen either of them, and she certainly hasn't tried going to their house to talk to them. There's a fear within her that crops up every time she considers visiting, a small voice telling her that it's a bad idea to try forcing herself into her mother's life anymore.
By any means, if she's going to have made an impact, she's going to have made it through her father, but she can't check that either with things as they are. She's stuck in a mess that she'd love to get out of, but as far as she knows there's no way to get out of it.
Walking past the road to their house every time her and Owain or Severa go out to train together doesn't make her worry that things aren't ever going to get better fade.
thirty-two.
Maybe she should just suck it up and visit the house again anyway. What's the worst that can happen, a door slammed in her face or maybe an order to stay away barked at her? It's not like she'll be attacked for showing up, so what's stopping her?
thirty-three.
The fear of being rejected and pushed away from her parents, that's what's stopping her. She approaches the house a couple times in one day, always turning back around mere steps from the front door because she doesn't want to earn her mother's anger simply for wanting to be a part of the family. All the other kids, when they arrived, they were accepted by their parents to some extent. All of them except her. She wasn't even the last one to show up in Ylisstol, yet she's the only one still on the outs with her family. Something has to change, and she knows it.
The issue is in how she can make it change in a positive way. As far as Kjelle knows, there's no way she's going to be able to gain her mother's trust, not unless she does something drastic, and quick.
thirty-four.
In the dead of night, she comes up on the front door with every intention to knock and wake anyone who's inside up, but with the overall goal of speaking with her mother. But when she raises her fist to the wooden door, she hesitates on actually touching it. Something's caught her eye and made her rethink her actions, and it's distracting enough to make her stop.
Her reflection in the dirty glass window, made possible by the moonlit sky, is a lot more striking than she'd ever realized it to be. She's definitely her mother's daughter, she knows this all too well, with the comparisons of their sharp faces, the way they both pout their lips when in a resting mode, how their cheeks cause their eyes to crinkle when they're incredibly happy, but she's always been her father's child more. The blonde hair that could be pushed back to mimic his perfectly, the intensity in the way their eyes narrow when they're upset, their broad shoulders and evenly-matched muscles… She's grown up trying to be like them both, and what would either of them do in her very situation?
If it were her father, he'd bust down the door and make his presence known.
Her mother? She'd wait until she had the perfect time to strike and then cause as much destruction as possible.
And Kjelle, she does nothing but sit and wait, unlike them both.
That has to change, but in the dead of night? She rethinks what she's doing, and after casting her reflection one last longing glance, she sighs and turns away. There's always tomorrow.
thirty-five.
Tomorrow comes, and so do the following days. She's doing exactly as she's always done, she's sitting and waiting and not acting on what she feels she needs to do. This is how she ended up separated from the Shepherds for so long, because she chose to wait and see if the loud group that stumbled upon where she was would interact with her. All they did was clear out all the bad-intentioned people around her and leave without a word in her direction, because it was a group completely free of anyone who would've known her. She knew they were the Shepherds, she could have easily approached one of them and told her story to them herself.
But no, she waited then, and she's waiting now. And what's waiting going to get her but more undeserved hatred in her life? She has to do something before she's out of time, or else she knows the outcome and she doesn't want to see that happen to any version of herself in any timeline again.
But can she actually bring herself to action, just this once?
thirty-six.
Once again, the interaction is completely accidental, but Kjelle can't help but thank the gods that she runs into her parents one day while debating with herself whether or not she wants to try talking to them. That feeling of relief that the chance has fallen into her lap fades just as quickly as it appears, though, when she realizes what they're doing out heading to the same place she's going—this isn't any kind of moment of theirs she wants to interrupt and ruin. She doesn't know all the details, as her versions of them never got around to telling her too many things about their "special place", but she knows just enough to know that following them to where they're going is a horrible idea.
That doesn't stop her from loudly coughing when she's a few steps behind them, getting them both to turn to look over their shoulders to see who's calling for their attention. "You've got to be kidding me," Sully says under her breath, hoping Kjelle doesn't hear her. "Of all the damn times for her to run into us, it has to be right now? Really?"
"Hey now, she ain't that bad if ya give her the chance." Vaike smiles back at her and she returns the favor, giving him a small wave that earns her one roll of the eyes from her mother. This is not going to end well when her intention is to talk to her mother, if it's her father that's being open with her. "Say, what're ya doin' out this way? Kinda odd for someone like ya t'be here, isn't it?"
Acting like she doesn't realize where she is, Kjelle looks around and audibly gasps at what she sees, playing up her "lack" of knowledge far more than she should. "I must've made a wrong turn somewhere," she tells them, stepping closer to try and bridge the awkwardness and make them ignore her bad acting. "Mind showing me the way back to the main part of town? I'm not very good with directions, you see."
"We're not dealing with you right now. This is our time, not yours, so that means you get the hell away from us." Sounding just as agitated as she looks, Sully turns back to facing forward and starts walking away, Vaike sighing and following with her, but Kjelle isn't going to give this up now that she's got it. She still feels wrong to be intruding on this moment she's heard about from her own timeline, but she knows it's the only way she's ever going to make any progress with them.
So she keeps pace with her parents, which isn't hard at all given circumstances, and the first time she gets the chance to reach out and grab her mother's arm she takes it, only to be punched for it. The person who threw the fist is what surprises her more than anything, because it would have made sense for it to be her mother to hit her away. But when she grabs the wrist right after she's been hit and looks at the hand attached to it, seeing its dark, rough, and calloused skin, her eyes go wide and her breath catches in her chest.
"I get that ya wanna get t'be part of this family, but give it time, will ya? It's not a good moment for it right now." Even though he has just punched her, Vaike sounds calm and steady as he speaks, causing Kjelle to nod meekly and let go of his wrist so he can move on. "We'll, uh, come up with somethin' to get'cha caught up with things once the timing's better, but right now just ain't gonna work."
Her nodding continues as she lets them walk from her sight, grumbles from her mother's lips wafting to her ears and making her insides twist. She's being called a horrible person, a waste of space, and worst of all, an unwanted presence, and none of that sits well with Kjelle at all. Especially not since…she shakes her head once to rid herself of that thought and moves on. If they don't want her, they won't have her, easy as that.
They can learn to love the child she's trying to let them know about on their own.
thirty-seven.
That encounter lingers in the back of Sully's mind for days. She's grown to resent that girl, never having liked her from the first time she showed up at the front door, and for her to think it's acceptable to walk up to someone and grab them like that is completely unheard of. Where'd she learn those kind of manners, because her parents definitely weren't the ones to teach her them. "I can't believe she tried that," she remarks multiple times as she keeps dwelling on the incident. "Why would she think I'd appreciate that?"
"She's just tryin' t'get through t'ya, and you're makin' it awfully hard for her to do just that. Maybe if ya hadn't always been turnin' her away whenever she came around, she wouldn't have thought to take such drastic measures." Vaike looks at his wife as he speaks to her, making sure what he's saying isn't upsetting or frustrating her, but the moment he shows any kind of sympathetic feelings for Kjelle her face twists and she turns her head away from him. "C'mon now, Sully, ya can't look at how you've been treatin' her and think that you're in the right on this one. She's here for a reason, that reason bein' t'get t'know us all over again since her versions of us are long dead."
"Do you think I care that she's here for that? I didn't ask for her to show up, just like I didn't ask for…for…" Her words escape her as she's rapidly turning one of her hands in front of her, gesturing towards her stomach as if she's carrying some kind of beast inside her. She takes a moment to formulate what else she wants to say on the matter, and when she speaks again she's just as upset as she was before, but there's a weakness to her voice. "I didn't want to ever find myself in this situation. I didn't want to have children to raise and take care of, I wanted all my devotion to be to the battlefield for the rest of my life."
"Uh huh, and if ya were serious 'bout that, ya wouldn't have married me t'begin with."
"You were a part of the battlefield, idiot, and getting married meant not having to share a tent with whatever girl felt lonely that night." Sully sighs, her hand's rotations slowing down and ultimately stopping as she lets it rest on what used to be the abdominal muscles she once was so proud of. "I bet sticking with that would've ended up better for me, though."
"Nonsense, don't be talkin' like that. Y'know, I'm sure the kid can hear us right now, I'm sure she's already startin' to think we think she's a burden or somethin'." Laying his hand right on top of Sully's, Vaike looked her straight in the eyes, seeing her eyebrows furrowing at what he'd just said, but he didn't let himself become bothered by it. "You might not have wanted this, but it's gonna be great for us both. I promise ya that."
She shakes her head, refusing to hear what he's saying. "You can't promise me anything. I'm going to be barred from returning to training until the damn thing's weaned, just in case something happens to me out in the field. And I don't want that. I want the exact opposite of that. Hell, I'd have been completely fine if you'd gone to some other lady to have a kid if you really wanted one."
"Yeah, but, y'see, there's a problem with that idea." Their eyes lock, one unhappy and the other trying to make the best of the current situation. "If the Vaike wanted to have kids with someone else, don't ya think I woulda gone off and done that without askin' ya? Clearly if I was willin' t'stick with ya until somethin' happened, havin' kids with you was what I wanted. Besides, if I had one with anyone else, they wouldn't be Kjelle and, really, after what little I've gotten t'know about her, I love her already."
Hearing that makes Sully refuse to speak to him for the rest of the night.
thirty-eight.
The next morning she wakes up to a silent house, no note left behind telling her where Vaike might have gone off to but since his things are still in the house she knows he's going to come back at some point. "Serves him right," she says as she sits up in bed, an aching in her back making her rethink what she's done so she lays right back down. "I'll take today to rest up, I suppose, but when he comes back I'm going to make sure he knows that what he said to me isn't okay."
Her laying down lasts for a grand total of three minutes, until she realizes the aching isn't going away and it's radiating to other parts of her body. She grimaces as she sits up once more, getting out of the bed and looking down at herself. Just because she's heavily pregnant doesn't mean she's taken to sleeping in more than just underclothes, even though she hates looking at what her body's become. "I hope this isn't anything to do with you," she tells her stomach, flicking it with a couple fingers before wincing at the pain that's overtaking her. It takes her a moment to think about what this could mean, and even with the realization that it could very well be something to do with her child she shrugs it off and tries going on with her day.
Within a few hours, she's gone from slightly uncomfortable in all states of existence to wanting to genuinely die at certain moments as the pain becomes much more than she's ever experienced through battlefield injuries. There's no one she can call for to help her out, not unless she wants to leave the house and find someone who might know a thing or two about childbirth, but leaving would require getting dressed and she doesn't think she could bring herself to do that. All she wants to do is lay back down and let this thing run its course, but even with her being completely clueless on how to handle what's happening, she's sure letting this happen naturally isn't the best idea.
For one of the few times in her life, Sully's at the mercy of something beyond her control, and she's got to hope that someone who can control this comes around soon enough.
thirty-nine.
Deep breath in, long exhale out.
On opposite sides of the door, two women ready themselves for what they're about to face. For one, it's a last-ditch attempt to make amends with someone she never got off on the right foot with. For the other, it's an attempt to keep herself calm as she's teetering on the edge of motherhood.
Deep breath in.
Kjelle holds her hand steady to knock on the door, but stops herself before she hits the wood, lowering her hand to turn the knob instead. She can't wait on an answer that might never come, she needs to get inside and hope that her mother's there so that she can set everything straight before the chance to do so has past.
Long exhale out.
Maybe pacing around the room isn't the smartest idea, but there's nothing else that is able to keep Sully's mind off of what's happening. When the pain strikes her she collapses into the closest thing to her, be it a wall, chairs, or even back into the bed, but the moment it subsides she's on her feet once more, going around and around the room. She can't let herself rest right now, she needs to keep moving and keep from panicking.
Deep breath in.
The doorknob turns easily under Kjelle's palm, her pushing the door open with ease. "Hello? Anyone in here?" she asks as she lets herself in, gasping when she sees the current state her mother is in.
Long exhale out.
"W-what are you doing here?" Having expected the person coming in to be the person who belonged there, Sully is taken aback by it being Kjelle, of all people, coming inside. "Get out! G-go get someone! Don't just stand there gaping at me!"
Deep breath in.
After taking a moment to assess the scene and understand that this might be the only way she could make things better, Kjelle nods and steps back outside, making sure the door's closed tightly before she runs to go find the first soul that might be of use. She's extremely fast on her feet when she's not armored down, and she finds the first person who looks like they have any medical knowledge and sends them in the direction of the little slum house.
She doesn't follow immediately, knowing that there's someone else she needs to find before she goes back. Her father's not doing much aside from sitting in that "special place" she'd encountered him on the way to before, hidden in between a few tall, bulky trees. She doesn't have to use too many words to get him to follow her back, and the whole return trip they link arms and share in the excitement (and fear) of the moment.
Long exhale out.
forty.
In the late evening that day, everything in their collective world changes. Newborn Kjelle isn't very big, and she doesn't cry too much, but there's something about her that's strikingly different from her grown version. When said grown version gets her first chance to look at her, after having to beg for the opportunity from both of her parents, she looks at this completely helpless child and tears well up in her eyes. "I…didn't think I'd see this happen," she confesses, wiping under her eyes to keep any tears from rolling down her cheeks and dripping onto the baby staring up at her. "It seems Naga set out to do us all a favor when she make it impossible for me to talk about myself to you. When she decided to really give you the perfect daughter you deserve."
She says nothing past that, merely nodding her head at the baby before heading out, leaving both (actually) new parents stunned at what had just happened. Or was their silence in direct result of the day they'd just had? Whichever it was, a mark had been made on their lives that they weren't going to forget, not when they now had a child of their own to care for.
A/N: When I started writing this I figured it would be a couple thousand words, a quick 40 short scenes that would end happily for everyone. And then I actually dove into it and realized that, no, it's not going to work like that at all. There might be some implications here and there that aren't explicitly mentioned-interpret things in this fic how you want. I just hope y'all like this tiny bit of babyfic I totally wrote for myself, haha.